Brand: Audi Condition: New: A brand-new, unused, unopened and undamaged item in original retail packaging âRoof Rails used to cost £550.00 from the Audi dealersâ âthere is nowhere else to get these apart from Germanyââ âofficial Audi Instructionsââ Wow what a complete scam artist, that add is super misleading on purpose. Could have easily caught me out too, Hope you win your case

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I've just realised this ain't the worst of it, that's the revised wording auction (revised after me posting this thread I'll add)

"Condition: New: A brand-new, unused, unopened and undamaged item" (apart from 50% of the fixings being useless or course)

"These used to cost £550.00 from the Audi dealers" (is that so, didn't know Audi sold aftermarket parts, did they run out of their own?)

"Official Audi Instructions and the fixingsââ (An Audi PDF which is irrelevant as neither the bars or fixings are the proper ones, Audi fixings... don't think so..)

"I was looking every day for about 2 years! I was going to fit them to my A3 but have now sold it" (righto...)

Anyway, its down to Paypal now, the guy has ignored my questions regarding the shoddy glued fittings and replied stating I have an attitude problem, that he is not interested in my claims, that he will dispute my claim Paypal claim the whole way as he has nothing else to lose and not to contact him again.
Nice.

The person dealing with this for me was instantly shocked about the poor quality of the rails compared to the genuine ones, commented that they looked cheap and tacky whilst comparing them to the same style of rails on a brand new A4 Avant sitting next to us in the showroom. This was the first time I've had an up close comparison with genuine ones and it makes these look like a joke part, I kid you not. They're not even remotely comparable in terms of quality and finish

Most importantly they talked about the shockingly insecure and crude tapping directly into the soft aluminimum rather than a special steel insert like the genuine ones have fitted into each mounting point on the alu rails and worst of all the fact someone at some stage before they arrived with me had glued three of the fittings in as (you would of course expect) the soft alu is a completely unsuitable metal to tap into and had threaded badly.

The bottom line they're a cheap knock off part which are extremely unsafe for the purposes of carrying a load on a roof, what's more they were happy to give me this in writing, on Audi letterhead paper, to help with my Paypal appeal along with the persons business card with contact details if Paypal have any more questions.

On conclusion of this appeal I'd be happy to post a scan of this up for all to read if anyone wants to.

The guy's selling dangerous, unfit for purpose junk at vastly inflated prices and blatantly miss-leading people into believing they're the genuine article by using genuine pictures, very sneaky wording and the not-far-off OEM price.

This would be comparable to taking an aftermarket HID kit to AUDI and asking them to compare to their OEM ballast and headlights. I'm not trying to knock what you're doing but I'm surprised AUDI would be interested in doing this. UNLESS the case hangs on the fact they were sold to you as genuine.

If he has used sneaky wording and not technically stated they are genuine then this is not unknown in sales. But I do agree they should be sold as aesthetic/show rails, not for loading carrying, but that is a different issue altogether, just like a lot of tat on ebay the quality may not be up to much, doesn't mean it can't be sold on there.

This would be comparable to taking an aftermarket HID kit to AUDI and asking them to compare to their OEM ballast and headlights. I'm not trying to knock what you're doing but I'm surprised AUDI would be interested in doing this. UNLESS the case hangs on the fact they were sold to you as genuine.

If he has used sneaky wording and not technically stated they are genuine then this is not unknown in sales. But I do agree they should be sold as aesthetic/show rails, not for loading carrying, but that is a different issue altogether, just like a lot of tat on ebay the quality may not be up to much, doesn't mean it can't be sold on there.

This would be comparable to taking an aftermarket HID kit to AUDI and asking them to compare to their OEM ballast and headlights. I'm not trying to knock what you're doing but I'm surprised AUDI would be interested in doing this. UNLESS the case hangs on the fact they were sold to you as genuine.

If he has used sneaky wording and not technically stated they are genuine then this is not unknown in sales. But I do agree they should be sold as aesthetic/show rails, not for loading carrying, but that is a different issue altogether, just like a lot of tat on ebay the quality may not be up to much, doesn't mean it can't be sold on there.

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There's two aspects to this case for a refund.

Firstly, the auction I purchased them from indicated they were a genuine Audi part in many ways. The seller later edited the wording of their next auction to remove all the indications I mentioned on this thread. They currently have a third auction running which clearly states these are not a genuine Audi part, this is how it should have been described all along instead of trying to trick people.

Secondly and most importantly, the sole purpose of roof rails are for carrying a load on the roof of your car plain and simple, they're not designed simply to improve the look of a vehicle, this is a matter of opinion. The rails this seller is selling are of such an inferior quality to the original part that they pose a genuine safety risk and this is not on! The person from Audi was more concerned about this than anything else, they were so shocked about the standard of the fittings and how insecurely they mount to the rails they felt an obligation to assist in my claim.

Picture me driving along a motorway at 70mph with two mountain bikes on the roof of my S3 (which I often have on my cars), the weight of the load could easily rip these substandard fittings clean out of the rails (I ripped 3 (of 8) out with my bloody hands for god sake!) . Do I have to spell out what could happen if that load then came off my car on to oncoming traffic? Really?

Anyway, I've twice offered to post the seller the rails back if they would simply refund me. I've not had as much as a reply, the latest of it is Paypal have accepted my letter from Audi and have asked me to destroy and dispose of the rails then send them signed confirmation this has been done at which point I should be refunded.

That's why I've stated there's two issues going on. The only official interest AUDI would have is if he is stating they are genuine and being passed of as. If he's not stating they're genuine but are just ****, and some clever wording gave the suggestion they are genuine and got a sale, it's nowt to do with AUDI.

For PayPal to take any notice of the letter from an AUDI dealer who confirms they're not genuine, it would only be if they [Paypal] agree that they were sold on the basis of them being genuine, not on the assessment of their quality.

If you haven't already done so, you can take a screen capture of the original eBay advert by pressing the [Prt Scn] button on your keyboard, then paste into any "Paint" program, Save the image somewhere you can easily find it. Do this before it disappears forever.

In "court" the highlighted statement could be argued that he was just making a statement about what roof rails cost from a dealer when you could get them. It's tenuous I know and I'm glad you've got your money back.

That's why I've stated there's two issues going on. The only official interest AUDI would have is if he is stating they are genuine and being passed of as. If he's not stating they're genuine but are just ****, and some clever wording gave the suggestion they are genuine and got a sale, it's nowt to do with AUDI.

For PayPal to take any notice of the letter from an AUDI dealer who confirms they're not genuine, it would only be if they [Paypal] agree that they were sold on the basis of them being genuine, not on the assessment of their quality.

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The rails have to be safe to use and if Audi agreed with him or aybody else trading standards so be it. As roof rails are for carrying load on your vehicle i'm sure there have to meet some standard as if not we all know what can happen.

on a slightly different note - how easy is it to fit genuine roof rails? I thought because you had to drill through the roof it would be safer to get Thule bars that go across? Don't look as good but functional.

Thread revival!
I met this guy a couple of weekends ago after offering him £270 for them on eBay. He messaged me back with his mobile number asking me to contact him, I ignored this at first but when he said he would be visiting near me I did exchange details via text and met up.
It was then I realised they were fake and although the advert never states they are genuine, to me it implies it.
There was no way I was going to buy them but for those interested, they do look like genuine ones when fitted (he had some on his car) apart from the lack of locating holes on the inside edge of the rail to fit the roof bars on.
To me £340 is way too much for cheap copies and they are priced that way to be passed of as genuine while making big profits!

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